Page 114 of Veinblood
“She wants to greet the Vareth’el. So that’s what we’re going to do.”
Chapter Thirty-One
SACHA
“In the heart of winter, we learn which fires can never be extinguished.”
Sayings of the Earthvein Sages
I can’t sleep,not with the bond lying dead in my mind where Ellie’s presence should be.
It’s strange how that connection has become important so quickly. Before we were thrown to Chicago, it had been nothing more than a vague sensation, not strong enough to really catch my attention. I don’t know whether the way our powers combined at Thornspire changed that, or what happened afterward.
We lost our connection when we returned to Meridian. I don’t know how or why, but this time it’s worse. This time I don’t know if it’s because I shared my power with her. I don’t know if it’s gone because I killed her. The possibility eats at me, twisting my gut into knots.
“Still nothing?” Varam asks from his position near the river.
I shake my head, not trusting my voice to keep the fears rolling through my mind hidden.
“Could that mean she’s safe? That whatever was happening has ended?”
I want to believe that, but the alternative … that sharing my power killed her, that I poured too much force across the distance and burned out her life … refuses to be dismissed.
“I don’t know what it means.” The admission makes my stomach lurch, and I force myself to breathe, to focus on anything else, but my mind keeps circling back to the silence where she should be.
Mira shifts nearby, unable to find rest either. We’re all waiting for dawn, for answers, for potential catastrophe. By the time pale light creeps across the horizon, we’re already moving through the forest toward the road that will take us to Ashenvale.
We’ve been walking for about thirty minutes when it happens. The dead space in my mind explodes with Ellie’s presence blazing its way back into life. Exhaustion, triumph, and a fierce joy hits me with such impact I stumble. My knees go weak and my vision blurs for a heartbeat. My throat closes up. I can’t breathe.
The relief that she’s alive threatens to undo every defense I’ve built.
“My Lord?” Mira’s voice reaches me.
“It’s Ellie. The bond is back. She’s alive.” I brace myself against a tree trunk and wait for the influx of emotions to settle, then draw in a steadying breath. “Keep moving.”
The knowledge that she’s alive drives me forward. We push through the remaining forest paths, and step onto the mainroad to Ashenvale. The city rises in the distance, but there’s something not quite right about the shape of its silhouette against the brightening sky.
“What in the shadows has happened?” Apparently, Varam can also see a problem.
I study the outline, trying to make sense of what I’m seeing. Entire sections of the outer wall have collapsed. The rubble spreads in heaps across the approach road, but it doesn’t look like siege damage. Sieges target weak points—gates, corners, structural flaws. This destruction follows no tactical pattern. It’s as if the stones simply … failed.
“How did that happen?” Mira says. “Walls don’t just collapse like that on their own.”
“Earthquake?” Varam’s tone lacks conviction in his suggestion.
I shake my head. “The damage looks too deliberate for that.”
Was this what Ellie needed my power for yesterday?
Movement on the road ahead interrupts my thoughts. Three horses coming toward us from the city’s main gates. Too distant to identify, and I still haven’t recovered enough from sharing my powers with Ellie to send my raven to investigate.
“We should get off the road,” Varam says from behind me.
But there’s something about the rider in the center … the way they’re sitting on the horse that sends recognition through me before logic can catch up.
Ellie.
“No need.”
